It’s been a busy….however long I’ve been gone from social media. I’ve popped in now and again to post reels and stories, but really no posts.
I got to the point where I was feeling hopeless (in the area of Instagram). Reels were being pushed. Everyone’s feed was looking like TikTok (and there’s a reason I’m not on that platform). Things were changing so fast, I was of the mindset, “Why try?”. Which happens when I’m overwhelmed.
So, I took a break. Again.
And you know what? As I do after all breaks, I felt better. I felt renewed that I could tackle everything I wanted to. But I had to have a different plan. So, I revisited the HB90 system by Sarra Cannon. I started her Publish & Thrive series. I am going to use Lemon Friday’s SM calendar for October. I’m stepping back and really planning how much I want to post and how much I feasibly can post. I’m trying to fine tune my niche on the content I’m posting about so I’m not trying to chase after everyone else and what works for them.
This has been the hardest part.
So, what have I been doing the past 3-6 months? *takes breath* Here we go.
We have been going on more family vacations, which has been so nice. For a family that is always seeming to say, “We’ll do this someday” we never end up doing them. So, this year, I actually picked dates and scheduled places to say and planned out meals and activities AND WE DID THEM.
Getting away from our everyday lives and obligations was such a nice change. Not to mention it gave us new memories and a reset.
Our most recent vacation was this past week to Glacier National Park in Montana. The West part of the park was mostly closed so we spent the majority of our time in East Glacier, which is beyond beautiful. The colors for fall were breathtaking and the weather was perfect. An added bonus? There were hardly any other visitors since the majority of the park was “closed” due to the Going to the Sun Road being closed early. On our hike to Hidden Lake, a local told us that during the summer season, there are about a thousand people at any given time on the 3-mile hike! I can’t even imagine.
I’ve also been working better on my time-management, honing the HB90 system to work best for me. If you need help scheduling your time, I highly recommend this course by Heart Breathings (Sarra Cannon). It literally changed my writing life.
The biggest thing that’s been swallowing my time…I FINALLY FINISHED THE LAST BOOK IN MY SERIES! This was huge, guys. HUGE. I’ve been working on this YA Dystopian series for about 10 years. And while, yes, I have written other books in that time, this is where the majority of my time has been spent. It’s a weird feeling bringing this story to an end, and you can read more about that over at my blog post for The Writer Community. It’s sad and exciting, but I’m ready to hit a home run with The Corporation Series and get started on other projects clamoring to be written.
When I first published this series, I did no marketing. No advertising. I managed to still sell thousands of copies, but I know it could have been better. MUCH better. So, I’m relaunching the series. I’m taking my books down everywhere. I’m having covers redesigned (and they’re amazing). I’m actually doing research on marketing and advertising. I’m in the middle of Sarra Cannon’s Publish & Thrive program. I’m going to actually have a launch. I’m going to get betas for my first book again (and my last). I’m going to do all the fun things I missed out on the first time around (pre-orders, giveaways, etc).
Can I tell you that I am super excited about all that? Because I am and I really want to tell someone. :)
Outside of writing, I’ve been swamped at work. I got a work promotion and am staying steadily busy. Baby boy is getting bigger and busier. My two older ones are back in school and in more after school activities. I’m also taking more down time for myself. So extra time for SM has taken a back seat.
And then there’s my health. Let me tell you, that’s been a doosie. It started back in June. I ignored the symptoms, thinking it was something else, but they never went away. So, at the end of August, I finally went to the doctor and got some medicine. It didn’t do anything. So, they gave me a second medicine, which I had a severe allergic reaction to. So not only did I have to recover from that (which was time consuming and painful), I wasn’t getting any better. Then that doc had me see another doc, who prescribed another medicine, which did nothing. So now, I’m on to a third doctor and had an entire blood panel drawn up in hopes of her being able to find some reason as to what’s going on. If that doesn’t work out, I’m not sure what my next steps will be. But, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
And finally, I’m updating my author brand and platform! I’m really excited about this, as well. I love my current colors and theme, but I really don’t feel that encompasses where I want to go with my writing. So, I changed it up. And I think I really like where I’m going with it. But if I don’t, I can always change it again. :) Now comes the fun part of figuring out how to change everything on my website. I’ve also been working on how I want my Instagram feed to look. And looking at a Shopify account. Oh, yeah, and also making my books into audiobooks. HELLO! How amazing would that be?
So yeah, basically, not much going on.
Thank the good Lord for coffee.
See ya later,
RaeLynn
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